Lad Zappalin

"Gravy Worship is the only religion that delivers the goods." Frank Zappa

I think I'm going to generate fake Frank Zappa quotes for the duration of the festivities.

Zappadan 2013

Zappadan 2013 is upon us! Where does the time go, the little poodles grow up so fast? Take that jar of leftover lumpy gravy from Thanksgiving out of the fridge and pour yourself a drink. And here, have yourself a fake Frank Zappa quote as a token of my esteem;
"Gravy drinkers are a breed apart." Frank Zappa

The Boy With The Spirograph Eyes

A few just about finished pages of The Boy With The Spirograph Eyes...

Before the Franktasia premiere, Carlos is pitching a storyboard to "Mitt Groaning" for "The Sampsons Tree Fort of Fright Halloween Special", right after Mitt has licked an LSD laced Elvis stamp.

Leonardo de mentia

Page 142, inking in progress, of The Boy With The Spirograph Eyes.

The Iowa Secret Conviviality Society had Noah Bly in the house last night. When he becomes a rich and famous novelist, I fully expect to sponge off of his success.

Noah Bly

Some pages in progress, still inking these ones. Author and Iowa Secret Conviviality Society Member in good standing, Noah Bly, makes a cameo appearance in The Boy With The Spirograph Eyes.

Plate of Shrimp

This is a panel from page 120 of The Boy With The Spirograph Eyes that I started inking a couple of days ago.

Today, I chanced upon a link to a discussion about Snagglepuss and his speech patterns (Hat Tip to BDR.) I get a huge kick out of this type of synchronized serendipity/serendipitous synchronicity. Plate of shrimp!

Advance Praise for "The Boy With The Spirograph Eyes"

"I laughed so hard, the bongwater I was drinking came out my nose. It makes Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential look like a Harlequin Romance." Joey the busboy

Some unfinished pages.

The Small Press Expo

Reblogging this because today's the day the Expo kicks off, and, also, too, it bumps John Thomas McCain of the top of the page.

In the spirit of volunteering and non profit promotion of artists and publishers who produce independent comics, I made this cartoon as an ad for SPX, The Small Press Expo . Unfortunately, I won’t be at SPX, but I hope everybody’s sales, purchases, and experiences far exceed your wildest dreams.

The Game is Seven Card Stud

Syrians depending on the kindness of strangers.

In The Middle of Tobacco Road

In the spirit of volunteering and non profit promotion of artists and publishers who produce independent comics, I made this cartoon as an ad for SPX, The Small Press Expo . Unfortunately, I won’t be at SPX, but I hope everybody’s sales, purchases, and experiences far exceed your wildest dreams.

Walking Blues

Another pencil test. I'll clean this one up and re-shoot it as part of a little project I'm working on.

10 Second Pencil Test

This was a flip book I made in 1987. I was wondering if it was possible to convert a flip book to video, essentially treating the video like film. I can only get 10 frames a second. Film is 24 frames a second, but typically a drawing goes for 2 frames, so that's 12 drawings a second, so it is close.

Lead Free Comix #4

This is me doing a warm up sketch using a Hunt’s crowquill to Who Be Dat?’s “New York…Man”.

The singer and co writer of the song, my friend Nate Solod, is the subject of my comic book, "After The Goldrush".

Hey Mickey, later in the week, I’ll try to do one with the "Dance On Fire" cut they recorded with Flea one night in Boston (1987?) after the RHCP/ Faith No More show at The Paradise.

Here’s some information for you if you don’t about Joseph Bowie and Defunkt.

The Boy With The Spirograph Eyes

A couple of unfinished pages, Tom's "job interview" meeting Steve for the first time.
This beast of a book will be about 170 pages when it's done.Here's a few pages of Simon getting the munchies while he's wasted on LSD and looking for a mailbox.

Entrails

"Yossarian was cold, too, and shivering uncontrollably. He felt goose pimples clacking all over him as he gazed down despondently at the grim secret Snowden had spilled all over the messy floor. It was easy to read the message in his emails. Man was matter, that was Snowden’s secret. Drop him out a window and he’ll fall. Set fire to him and he’ll burn. Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage. That was Snowden’s secret. Ripeness was all."

"Head bent over heavy, my feet became the pavement"

Inside cover of a copy of "After The Goldrush", hand drawn in ballpoint pen and markers.

Herb the Dinosaur and The Hippo

A couple more of the t-shirts from Iz. Herb the Dinosaur was made when she was 9 years old. It was the first shirt she made for me, and she used colored Sharpies. As it is one of my favorite shirts to wear, the image started to fade from repeated washings, so I mailed it to her with the blank t-shirts and the fabric markers for a touch up.

Chumley

I sent to my 11 year old niece a package of blank t-shirts and some fabric markers, and this is one the shirts she sent back. You're awesome, Iz!

Nostalgia's just another word for nothing left to lose

Eight years gone....Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

Nothing burps better than Francis Bacon. Your water looked tasty.

Some movie quotes never leave you, especially when your brothers are big movie watchers and the lines are periodically trotted out."It's a jelly."

I put the "Francis" in the Dutch quote, because I'm a big fan. His paintings have influenced my painting. I got the biggest kick when I saw this photo of Bachmann. What subversive genius on her staff staged this "Figure with Meat" photo? It's like "Sarah Palin doing an interview in front of a guy slitting turkey necks" porn, but with more airbrushing.


"I kinda like this one, Bob, leave it!"
Bachmann photo by Charlie Niebergall, hat tip to Mark Hoback

I find this development in the ongoing Michele Bachmann saga quite fascinating. I'm a bit skeptical that they'll actually convict the Tea Party darling and winner of the Iowa Straw Poll in 2012, and she'll do jail time, but wouldn't that be sweet? You never know, though! She really pissed off Karl Rove, so maybe they'll make an example of her.

Asthmatic Sax

After The Goldrush

"After The Goldrush" has been submitted to The Ignatz Awards. Wish me luck!

"After The Goldrush" is a handmade book, each book a unique art object. These covers are silkscreened with black ink, then hand colored with watercolor markers. If you order one, you get original drawings on the inside covers, a unique "centerfold", a copy of the mini comic "Carnation Instant Nonfat Karma" (while supplies last, if I'm out, I'll substitute something else), and Special Secret Song Inside bonus original artwork from the Zencomix archives. While supplies last. Thanks to everyone that already bought one, you folks are the best!

The Monk Bought Lunch

R.I.P. Ray Manzarek



Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who voted for my cartoon in the Looking at Democracy contest, and a special thanks to all who helped spread the word by plugging my effort on their sites. The official winner of the People's Choice will be announced in a couple of weeks, but according to unofficial results, it doesn't look like I'll be winning that part of the contest. There is more prize money being awarded, so there's still hope of picking up some cash.

Updates on The $5000 Prize Money I'm Trying To Win

I've entered a contest sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Council and The MacArthur Foundation called Looking At Democracy. There's $100,000 worth of prize money, and $5000 of that money is a "People's Choice" Award. Voting is open to the public, and you can help me win the $5000 by voting for my submission.

Voting is free and easy, and won't take much time. Visit the page with my submission, "Truth or Consequences". On the right side of the page is a red button that says "VOTE". Click on it, and they will ask you sign up and log in with your email address. I'd really appreciate it if you'd vote for my cartoon and spread the word! Thanks!

UPDATES: Please Note--Only votes placed on the contest website will be counted (Facebook "likes" are not included). Voting is open until 3pm ET May 16.

As of a couple of days ago, the current top ten submissions were:
Solutions To Strengthening America's Democracy / 158
Civic Hacking in Pursuit of Democracy / 119
Dear Democracy… / 97
Bring It to The Table / 92
Spin / 73
DIVE IN: This is What Democracy Looks Like / 64
Exciting / 61
Carrots and Sticks for Democracy / 60
Agenda Setters / 55
Democracy is US! / 50

So, unfortunately, I'm not even in the top ten. Fortunately, voting is still open until May 16th, and I've had some help from some friends getting the word out. A big thank you goes out to
BLCKDGRD for a couple of links
Battochio for a whole post plugging my cartoon.
Tengrain did me a huge favor by getting a link into the Mike's Blog Round Up at Crooks and Liars.
Elizabitchez for the reblog on Tumblr.
Goth Summer for the reblog on Tumblr.
....and The Small Press Expo for the shout out and kind words.
And a big thank you to all the people who took one minute out of your day to help me win some cash.

Help your friendly neighborhood cartoonist earn $5000, won't cost you anything but a little time

I've entered a contest sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Council and The MacArthur Foundation called Looking At Democracy. There's $100,000 worth of prize money, and $5000 of that money is a "People's Choice" Award. Voting is open to the public, and you can help me win the $5000 by voting for my submission.

Voting is free and easy, and won't take much time. Visit the page with my submission, "Truth or Consequences". On the right side of the page is a red button that says "VOTE". Click on it, and they will ask you sign up and log in with your email address. I'd really appreciate it if you'd vote for my cartoon and spread the word! Thanks!

Help me win some money, won't cost you anything but a little time.

I entered a contest sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Council and The MacArthur Foundation called Looking At Democracy, and reworked one of my Blog Against Theocracy cartoons.

The Looking@Democracy challenge is offering a total of $100,000 in prize money for short, provocative media submissions designed to spark a national conversation about how we can all come together to strengthen American democracy. Here’s how the competition works: Create and send us short digital media content that either: (a) Tells a story about why government is important to our lives, or (b) Tells how we might together strengthen American democracy. Your submission can come in many formats such as short videos, audio stories, animation, music videos, public service announcements, infographics, graphic art, even Facebook and iPhone apps. They all just need to be digital so they can be shared electronically– the rest is up to YOU!

There's a "People's Choice" award of $5000, and I'd really, REALLY appreciate your vote."People's Choice" voting for entries begins May 6 and runs through May 16. Be sure to spread the word, and only vote once.

Voting is free and easy, and won't take much time. Visit the page with my submission, "Truth or Consequences". On the right side of the page is a red button that says "VOTE". Click on it, and they will ask you sign up and log in with your email address. I'd really appreciate it if you'd vote for my cartoon and spread the word! Thanks!

Paging Pon Carlo

Popo's drawing last summer (11 yrs. old?)

Ain't Gonna Work On Maggie's Farm No More

I hate the way she makes us mop the blood off the floor....

Ten Years On: Iraq Bleeds On, Pakistan Bleeds Anew